


bringer of good tidings

by zukoscomet



Series: roots and wings [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family Fluff, Iroh naturally makes the best grandpa too, Katara and Zuko (Avatar) are Parents, Kid Fic, Momtara & Dadko, Pregnancy, the BEST parents i'll have you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28921725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zukoscomet/pseuds/zukoscomet
Summary: Four becomes five.Or: Katara travels to the Southern Water Tribe for the birth of her third child.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: roots and wings [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934692
Comments: 5
Kudos: 66





	bringer of good tidings

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I'm not overloading you guys with stuff but I have been sitting on this goddamn fic, fully completed, for so long I just had to post it.

It was remarkable really, the Fire Lord thought to himself as the words of his finance minister began to meld together into one monotone drone, how much one man could have to say about _numbers_.

The wave of relief that washed over him - and probably a majority of his other councillors and cabinet members, too - when Minister Iwai set aside his scroll was quick to turn to horror when he replaced it with yet another. He fought the urge to outwardly cringe when he sat up straighter in his chair to look at the parchment and found it filled from top to bottom with the minister’s tiny, spidery penmanship.

_This_ was why they never held council meetings in the morning. No sane person could hope to maintain attention for this long this early, though perhaps he was leaning into the excuse of the hour a little too heavily. Zuko had never been much good with finance.

He hoped that Kai grew up to have a better head for economics, for his own sake.

Finally, _thankfully_ , after a length of time that had made Zuko feel like he’d aged a decade, his finance official reached the end of his update.

“Thank you, Minister Iwai.” Zuko bowed his head in polite recognition before turning to the figure at the opposite end of the table. “Chairwoman Qiaoling, is there anything else that needs to be covered before we close the session?”

“Not by my reckoning, sir. The agenda is clear.” The elder woman said as she rolled up the scroll. “All the discussions and decisions that require your presence have either already been pushed through over the last few months or rescheduled until after you have returned to office. For the day-to-day things that must continue while you are away, we have already made the necessary arrangements, as you know.”

He did know, but leaving the Fire Nation to be administered to by others was never going to be an easy thing. Reassurance didn’t go amiss. “Good. You know my uncle is remaining here to help and stand in if anything crops up.”

“His presence is much appreciated, my Lord,” the young man to his immediate right spoke up - Councilman Hara, from the Isle of Khersai to the south. “-but we have well-prepared for your absence, however long or short that might be dependent on the circumstances. You leave the Fire Nation to safe hands, we assure you.”

“Oh no, please don’t take my nerves as a lack of faith. I know you’re all very capable.” he said hurriedly as he rose from the table. “Good luck.”

“Likewise, sir.” Qiaoling reciprocated with a glint of knowing in her eye. As the council’s chairwoman, Qiaoling was privy to a great deal more of her sovereign’s personal life than the rest of their company. She knew that he was going to need it. “Have a safe trip south and please bear the Council’s best wishes to Fire Lady Katara. I know I speak for everyone present and our nation as a whole when I pray she has an easy delivery. We look forward to greeting the new arrival when you return.”

The councillors let him go without the usual interruptions of one-to-one chats and the staff milling in the halls do the same. Before he knew it, he was passing through the main entrance to the family wing, walking the corridor of their private chambers and coming to a stop outside his children’s room.

Before he could go any further, however, a light voice came from his left.

“Fire Lord Zuko?”

Zuko turned to find the captain of the ship taking them south stood before him, fingers snapped up to the corner of her right eye in salute. The woman wasn’t familiar to him, meaning she almost certainly hadn’t staffed a vessel bearing him overseas before. Even with the thousands of people his title brought him into contact with yearly, Zuko had an uncanny knack for remembering names and faces. He had been expecting a stranger though, since he’d sent Katara on their family’s usual ship - along with the guards and sailors staffing it - when she’d departed a fortnight ago. The new captain was a great deal younger than the usual military officials that surrounded him, he noted, late twenties at best.

“The cargo and your luggage have all been secured on board, my Lord, and the crew are accounted for at their stations.” she informed him briskly, lowering her arm to her side. “We’re ready to cast off when you are.”

“Captain....?”

“Toshika, sir.” she answered hurriedly after a moment, when she picked up the meaning of his trail. “I was reassigned from the Eastern Isles Regiment to the Lord’s Own a few months ago.”

“At ease, Captain Toshika.” the Fire Lord instructed. “Please let the crew know that they only need salute or bow once, otherwise it’s going to be a very long journey for us all. I do like to wander.”

Toshika did as she was bid and her form slid into resting position, hands twining in the small of her back. “Yes, sir.”

He studied the young woman curiously, eyeing the chevrons and ribbons adorning her jacket. “You must be rather good at your job to have ascended so high up the ranks at your age. And to be assigned into my personal unit.”

“I would like to think so, sir.”

She was nervous in his presence, he could tell. He see it in the stiff line of her shoulders and hear the hesitant quaver in her voice. Virtually everyone was anxious around him the first time they met him and not even after fourteen years on the throne was Zuko used to receiving that reaction. Every time he retreated from the familiarity of his domestic sphere where he was only Zuko and stepped into the public one where he was only the Fire Lord, the difference in reception smacked hard. Fortunately, in those fourteen years he’d also become rather adept at breaking the ice.

“Me too, since you’re the one that’s gonna be keeping me afloat for a week.” Finally, the captain relaxed, allowing herself a quiet laugh as Zuko dug deeper for the human connection. “From the east and across to the big city. That must have been quite a change for you.”

“It was, sir - Caldera is a world away from my hometown - but a welcome one. Island dwelling has its perks but it can also be... rather boring at times.” she admitted with a smile.

“I think I’ll say nothing in response to that, if you don’t mind.” Zuko chuckled. “I have a progress scheduled for the Eastern Islands in the spring. It would probably go down much easier if the people were not heckling me for my opinions.”

“That seems sensible, my Lord.”

Satisfied that the air of anxiety had been dissipated ready for the journey, Zuko moved on to address the initial purpose of her presence. “Thanks for coming to let me know. I’ll be along in a moment.” He raised his empty hands then tipped his chin towards the children’s door illustratively. “I just need to collect my travelling companions.”

“Whenever you’re ready, sir. We’re ahead of schedule, so there’s no hurry.” The commander reiterated with a nod before spinning on her heel sharply.

“Captain?” he called her back after a second.

She halted in her steps immediately, turning to face him once more. “Sir?”

“Kai and Izumi are at that age, they’re quite... _curious_ about things - about people.” Zuko spoke in a hushed tone, just in case there was two pairs of listening ears behind the door. “Could you tell your crew that they’re free to talk to them and play along if they want to? I know children aren’t for everyone but sometimes people get a little... _stiff_ around them, like they don’t know how to respond.” He explained hurriedly as Toshika blinked in surprise at the request. “They’re just kids. They don’t really understand who they are yet and what that means - especially Izumi - so when people act different with them, they think it’s because they’ve done something wrong. Just,” Zuko sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Try and treat them how you would any other kid. People don’t seem to believe me when I say that but I was hoping maybe if they heard it from you-”

“I’ll tell them, my Lord.” Toshika reassured. “The majority of the crew either have siblings or are parents themselves. I doubt they’ll have any trouble honouring that request. In fact, I think they’re quite excited. It’s not everyday you get to spend a week with a crown prince and a princess around.”

The tension in his body slackened with relief. “Thank you.”

She gave him one last stand to attention before marching off back where she came and leaving him alone in the hall.

He tapped his knuckles to the wood. 

Instead of the customary _‘come in’_ that he usually received, he heard the faint sound of his uncle’s voice - loud enough that he could tell it was him, but not so much that he could pick out exact words. He didn’t need to. The peal of laughter from both kids immediately followed by the sound of running feet told him everything he needed to know about what he was walking into.

Once the commotion in the room had died off, he pushed the handle down.

“Now,” He burst through the door with comical dramatics. “Where are my cubs?”

A pair of giggles came from the conspicuous lump beneath the covers of the prince’s bed and the tips of girls shoes sticking out at the bottom of the curtain. But of course, Zuko - a veritable master of the role he played in this game of theirs by now - did not see a single thing beyond the empty room. He closed the door behind him, squinting his eyes and putting the length of his fingers to his brow in mock confusion, before he turned to his uncle.

“Uncle?” he asked over the old man's innocent whistling. “Where have Kai and Izumi got to?”

“I have no idea, nephew. I just thought I’d come along and wish you all farewell before you went on your trip south, but then _poof_!” Iroh’s eyes twinkled playfully as he answered with theatric bewilderment. “Gone.”

“That’s odd. Where on _earth_ could they be?” he said as he threw open the princess’s wardrobe. The quiet giggles came again as he sorted through Izumi’s array of dresses. “Not in here.”

“Hmm. Perhaps you should check in the toy box.” Iroh suggested.

He crossed to the other side of the room and lifted the lid of the chest, peering down at the jumble of toys. More giggling. “Not in here either.”

Zuko walked to the centre of the bedroom, stroking his chin as he turned in a circle. “Well, I suppose if they’ve gone missing then they’ll have to stay here while I travel south and go penguin sledding.”

“That would be an almighty shame.” Iroh encouraged but the children resisted the bait, like they most often did. 

Zuko’s eyes returned to the oddly child-shaped mass covered by blankets. 

“I wonder...”

He sneaked over to the bed, allowing the heels of his boots to strike the stone floor just enough to build the anticipation to its maximum. With one last search under the bed and beneath the pillows for good measure, he lifted the corner of the duvet and snatched it back.

“Gotcha!”

“Run, Zumi, run!” Kai yelled with laughter as he was scooped up off the bed and slung over his father’s shoulder.

Izumi was remarkably nimble for a four-year old and her petiteness worked to her advantage in games requiring her capture, but Zuko has gone through this with her practically every day since she learned to walk. He knew her strategy well. She darted out from her hiding place behind the curtain and ran towards the door as fast as her little legs would carry her. For once, Zuko was a step ahead of his precocious daughter. He lunged forward and caught her by the back with a fistful of her tunic, hauling her backwards to him and tossing her over his other shoulder right beside her brother.

“Grandpa, help us!” Kai called out.

“Help you? Oh, no, I think this is a fitting punishment for naughty princes and princesses who hide from their father.” Iroh shook his head solemnly, but couldn’t quite contain the grin spreading across his face.

“But Grandpa,” Kai argued in betrayal. “ _You_ were the one that told us to hide.”

Iroh gasped in feigned shock. “How could you say such a thing, Prince Kaito? I did no such thing.”

“Put us down, Daddy!” Izumi shrieked. 

“What, like this?” Zuko grinned, grabbing hold of them on each side and sliding them further over his shoulders. He left them there for a moment, both screeching with laughter as they dangled down his back by their ankles, hands scrabbling for purchase in his cloak before he pulled them all the way back over.

“So,” he said as he crouched to set them down. “Whose ready to go and see Mommy?”

Izumi’s hand shot up. “Me!”

Kai concurred eagerly. “And me! I miss her so much.”

Zuko reached out and ruffled his son’s silky black hair. “Me too, buddy.”

“Are Grandpa Koda and Gran Gran going to be there? And Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki and Tulok? And Uncle Aang and Aunt Toph and Bumi?” Izumi asked hopefully.

“I don’t think Aunt Toph will be, no. Remember when Mom and I told you Aunt Toph has got a baby growing in her tummy, too?”

“Yeah, I remember! Aunt Toph is _pregnant_.” Zuko and Iroh only barely stifled a laugh at the way the princess emphasised the word. Her pronunciation was almost flawless, but the tone she used was an exact imitation of Katara’s poised, professional healer voice. “We’re going to have a new sister _and_ a new cousin.”

“That’s right, it’s an exciting time for the family, and clever girl for remembering how to say that big word, too.” Izumi beamed with pride as her grandfather tugged the end of her braid affectionately. 

“You remember how your baby sister was making Mommy feel really sick right at the start of her pregnancy?” Both children nod solemnly in response to Zuko’s probing. Katara had done her best to try and hide it from them, but the persistence and severity of her symptoms had made complete ignorance impossible. “Well, that’s what’s happening to Aunt Toph right now.”

The princess’s face fell a mile. She had a particularly soft spot for her abrasive aunt. “Oh.”

Kai frowned. He’d picked up on how unwell Katara had been more than his sister. “Is she gonna be okay?”

“She’s fine.” he reassured them quickly. “She’ll get better soon just like Mommy did, but she needs to rest so I doubt she made the trip with Uncle Aang and Bumi. She’s probably at the Southern Air Temple. Everybody else will be there though because they’re gonna look after you while Mommy has the baby, okay?”

The Southern Water Tribe’s traditions did specify for older children to be at the birth of a sibling. The elders taught that it strengthened the bonds of the family, taught the children about life and stoked a new grounding of respect for their mother. When Katara had insisted on bringing their third child into the world the way her ancestors had for centuries before her, he’d assumed Kai and Izumi’s presence would be a given, but Katara had ultimately decided against it. She had declined to offer a specific explanation, but Zuko figured it probably had a lot to do with the experience of Izumi’s arrival. A birth five weeks early would have been stressful enough, but the abnormally fast pace of her contractions had stripped her of all calm and control, leaving her completely racked with terror for most of it. She didn’t want to risk her children seeing her like that, so they’d planned for Kai and Izumi to stay with their grandfather. He and Katara had been reminding them of that arrangement practically every day since they’d agreed it, but he was still expecting there to be outcry. There had been on many prior occasions.

This time, though, Izumi’s only concern was: “Do you think Gran Gran will make us seal stew?”

“If you ask her nicely, I don’t see why not. Maybe you could help her out with the cooking and show her how you can heat things up now.” he answered, pressing a kiss to her fire-wielding palm before he stood back up. “Captain Toshika says the ship is ready to leave now. Your chests are already safe in our cabin, but are you sure you’ve got everything you need? We won’t be able to turn back once we’re at sea.”

Kai nodded firmly. Izumi was less certain, looking back at her bed then up at Zuko, golden eyes filled with concern. “Is Ducky on the ship, too?”

“Yeah, he’s waiting for you on your bunk,” he assured her. “Though he said he might go and take a dip in the sea once we’re on our way.”

The princess had no time whatsoever for indulging the fruits of her father’s imagination that day. Playing with Izumi like this was always a fifty-fifty hit and miss endeavour. Her brain was wired too logically to jump into fables so readily. “The sea is much too deep for a turtleduck to go swimming in, Daddy.” she told him matter-of-factly. “And dangerous with all the big _predators_ in there.” 

Four years old, he reminded himself, Izumi was only four years old and she was already among the sharpest people he knew. Her mind was like a sponge. He could only imagine what a lethal weapon she’d be when she was all grown up. 

“I suppose you’re right. You’ll have to keep him safe with you then.” he told her softly. “Make sure he doesn’t go wandering off on his own.” 

“I will.” 

“Alright then. Let’s get on our way. We’ve a long journey ahead of us.” Zuko sighed at the thought of the sheer distance - and the time required to cover it - between them and Katara. “Say goodbye to Grandpa Iroh.”

He didn’t need to ask them twice.

“Safe travels, my little sparks.” Iroh said as his grandchildren took their turns hugging him. “I will miss you both lots.”

“Can’t you come, Grandpa?” Kai asked once more time, holding both of the elder man’s hands in his little ones. “You can come penguin sledding with us. And you’ll be there to see the new baby.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow at his uncle in a way he hoped conveyed that there was room on the ship for him, that he was welcome to join them. He seemed to receive the message but shook his head like he always did. Iroh never joined them on their trips south, his reasoning being that now he’d moved back into the palace, he got to see Kai and Izumi far more than Katara’s side of the family did - that time in the south was reserved for Hakoda and Sokka only.

“It is a kind offer, Kaito, but I am not built for the poles like you young ones. I get too cold.” Iroh offered a simpler explanation to the prince, patting his head. “I will be here when you get back to greet you - and my new granddaughter.”

Seemingly satisfied with that answer, Kai stepped back and took his father’s outstretched hand as Zuko said goodbye to his uncle. When he made towards the bedroom door, however, there was still only one hand in his own. He turned back to find Izumi still rooted to the spot, arms held up in the air above her head suggestively.

“Don’t you think you’re a bit old to be carried now?”

She stuck out her bottom lip defiantly, stretching her arms higher. “No.”

Iroh concurred. “I think she is still small enough for a ride.”

Zuko smiled. Smart as a whip she may be, but she was still his little girl in all the ways that counted most. He circled back to her and hauled her up to sit on his shoulders, her hands burying into the fabric of his robe for extra support. “I suppose even big sisters need a lift sometimes, too, huh?”

“Even big sisters,” Izumi echoed firmly. “-but when the baby comes you can hold her instead of me. Sometimes.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Zum, but I’m sure you girls can share me.”

Izumi looked relieved to hear that she wasn’t going to have to sacrifice her father as a vehicle just yet. Her body relaxed into her seat, folding forward to press her cheek to the crown of his head as he set off out the door, Kai’s hand still clutched in his.

The knowledge that the next time they returned to the palace, they’d have a new member of the family - his _daughter_ \- in tow was a little too huge for his mind to fully comprehend, but the fear he’d felt in anticipation of Kai’s arrival, of Izumi’s to lesser extent, wasn’t there. He was nervous, certainly. How could he not be when Katara was on the other side of the world and for all he knew - in spite of their exhaustive planning to boost the chances of a timely arrival - may have already delivered. Nevertheless, it was mostly excitement that fluttered in his stomach as he made his way through the halls of his home as a father of two for the last time.

The moment they’d all been waiting for for nine months drew ever nearer.

* * *

When Zuko awoke on the seventh day to a chill floating in his cabin that not even the heat of he himself and the two little firebenders sandwiched on either side of him could completely fight off, he knew they were close.

Sure enough, when he negotiated his way out of the bed without disturbing its other occupants and made his way up to the top deck, a smudged sliver of blue, white and grey was stretched across the horizon.

Like they had tended to do in the now three weeks he’d been without her, his thoughts strayed to his wife. Just a few miles over the waves, Katara was waking up exactly thirty-nine weeks pregnant today. Her time was so near. He wondered how she was feeling. Was she excited? Nervous? Impatient? Afraid? Knowing Katara, it was probably a potent combination of all those things, amongst others. What he did know for sure was that she would be feeling the absence of her children. This had been the longest time she’d ever been separated from Kai and Izumi, and the prospect of it had almost put Katara off of the idea of traditional Southern birth altogether. The risk that Zuko was going to step onto the ice later and find that his wife had already given birth had also played into her doubts, but Zuko had insisted.

_“Can we talk?” Katara asked, folding her hands over the precious curve of her abdomen - hovering at that weird stage of not quite so round as to be heavily pregnant, but swollen enough that their growing thirdborn could no longer be hidden away beneath loose clothes._

_Zuko deflated. He knew what was coming. “Sure.”_

_“You know I had my check-up with the physician today-”_

Shit _, Zuko kicked himself in his head. He’d been so caught up dread over the other thing, he hadn’t even considered the most important question. “Is the baby okay?”_

_A wave of relief washed over him at the confirmation in the blossom of Katara’s smile “She’s fine. Everything is perfect. I’m still measuring big though - quite a bit bigger than Kai and Izumi actually - so it looks as though she’s going to be a chubby little thing.” She stroked her thumb over the top of her belly lovingly. Zuko allowed himself a second to indulge in the picture. “Since I’m well over halfway through the pregnancy now, we were starting to talk about a delivery plan and well...” He braced himself as she paused. “I think I'd like to give birth in the South Pole this time. Traditionally.”_

_“Uh... okay.”_

_“See, you say_ ‘okay’ _but the look on your face says the opposite.” She frowned at him. “What's wrong, Zuko?"_

_“Nothing. Nothing's wrong.” he says hurriedly. “You’re the one that’s having a baby; it’s your body. I'm in no position to tell you where you can or can’t do it.”_

_“_ Tell _me, no, but you're my husband. You're her father. Of course you get a say in it.” Katara insisted. “What's the problem?"_

_He hesitated. “It's not a problem, as such, it's just-, well... I-"_

_“I know how we handle births in the Southern Water Tribe might seem a little..._ harsh _to you, compared with the way things are done in the Fire Nation, but I promise I know what I’m doing and so does Gran Gran, if I need her help. It’ll be just as safe for us there as it would be here. If it makes you feel better, we can take the physician, too, to be on standby just in case something goes_ really _wrong. I’m sure she wouldn’t-”  
_

_“No, no, no! It’s not that. Not at all. The way you do things is fine. Honestly. I know you’d never do anything to risk your baby, Katara.”  
_

_The confusion on her face only multiplied. “Then..._ what _?”  
_

_"If you go south, I can’t promise that I’ll be there for the birth." he blurted out finally._

_The impact was instantaneous. "What?" she exclaimed. “Why wouldn’t you be there? It’s your baby."_

_“It is._ She _is.” he reassured as he sat down on the couch beside her, laying a hand on her belly. “But logistically, it’d be... not_ impossible _but unlikely that I’d get there at the right time. You’d have to leave the Fire Nation early to minimise the chance of you going into labour at sea. Assuming she came on the due date, plus another three weeks on top for recovery and the return journey, we’d be gone for atleast six weeks and what happens if you go overdue? What if you need more time to recuperate before you’re ready to travel? Plus there’s Kai and Izumi to think of. It’d be fine once you get to the tribe, but could you manage them cooped up on a ship for seven days while you’re heavily pregnant?” Zuko shook his head as the endless facets of what she was asking flooded through his head. “I can’t leave the Fire Nation unattended for that long, Katara. Having two or three weeks off while I’m still here in the palace to deal with a hypothetical emergency is one thing; being on the other side of the world for the better part of two months is something else entirely.”_

_“If your instinct is telling you to go south to have her, then I want you to do it. We'll figure something out. Besides, it’s not like you’ll be alone. You’ll have your dad and Sokka and Gran Gran there to support you instead, and I’m not saying I won’t be there - you know I’d do everything I could to time it right. I just can’t guarantee it.”_

_She blinked in surprise. “You’re crazy if you think that I’m going to plan to bring our daughter into the world without you there."_

_“It’s not about me.” he insisted. “It's about what’s best for you and the little one. That's what's important. I would much rather miss it and know you were safe and comfortable in your homeland. Obliging you to stay here with me and give birth unhappy just so I can sit there and watch would be unbelievably selfish.”_

_Zuko thought his argument was rather solid, but Katara just laughed in utter incredulity. “_ Selfish _? Are you kidding me? Seriously, only you could think you were being selfish for wanting to see your little girl born. I would_ never _ask you to give up that moment.”_

_“You’re not asking. I’m saying that it’s okay.” The steely glint that usually resided in Katara’s eyes had shifted over to Zuko. “I think I’ll always feel a little guilty for having taken you from the South. I know that you chose this on your own,” he continued a little louder as she opened her mouth to argue. “-and I’m so, so grateful that you did, but you would never have had to make that choice if not for me - if not for who I am.” He reached out and took her hand into his own. “One day, when this country doesn’t need me anymore and Kai sits the throne in my place, we’ll go south and spend as many years there as we have left. But for now, I want you to have as much as I can give. This is me giving.”  
_

_“Spirits, Zuko, I appreciate it but_ listen _to me.” she said, squeezing his hand tight. “I’m not saying that I want you there just because of the baby. I want you there for_ me _.”_

_Zuko couldn’t say that he fully understood what she meant. At the births of their first two children, he’d felt completely and utterly useless to her, but he knew that tone of hers. It meant there was no more arguing to be had, no matter what._

_He sighed._

_“Leave it with me. There must be a way.”_

After many long hours of thinking it through, consulting with his Council and the family physician repeatedly, it turned out there _was_ a way. It had a lot of moving parts and even more taking chances, but it was the best they were going to get and Katara had reluctantly given it her seal of approval. With some self-persuasion, Zuko had accepted that it would work out, too.

Now though, as he saw the ice shelf that was Katara’s home grow slowly larger in the distance, he wasn’t so sure of himself.

Absolutely _anything_ could have happened to them in his absence.

The fear multiplied ten-fold when their ship finally came into dock an hour later and he saw only Sokka and Tulok, Aang and Bumi, and Hakoda there waiting.

While Kai and Izumi launched themselves in the direction of their cousins and their grandfather with reckless abandon, Zuko rushed over to his brother-in-law and Aang.

“Is she-, is she still-” he asked pleadingly, breathless from the near-sprint down the jetty.

“Don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything. My great-great granddaughter is still yet to arrive.” Despite himself, Zuko still managed to roll his eyes at his friend’s old stand-by of a joke, even though his attempts to convince Kai and Izumi to call him Great-Great Grandpa Aang had all failed miserably.

“Oh yes.” Sokka grinned, clasping his hand tight around Zuko’s forearm in greeting. “She’s still very, _very_ pregnant. You’ll see.”

When he calmed down enough to analyse it, Zuko got the gist of Sokka’s taunting warning on the dock, but he received it with even more clarity when he entered their igloo and saw his wife. Katara was _big_. It was the only word that covered it. This being her third pregnancy, he did have the good sense to keep that thought to himself, but it didn’t make a great deal of difference.

Katara was clearly already furious with him. 

She was wearing his spare parka - the full length red one lined with cream furs - but when his eyes sunk lower to where her hands laid protectively, he knew it was not out of some pining sentiment for him. In the three weeks she’d been gone, her abdomen had swollen an amount that made _him_ want to wince in discomfort. The round of her belly was almost like its own entity, occupying her entire lap - length and width. It hung so low and heavy it was like her own body could barely countenance the burden and was attempting to drop it to the floor. Katara had gotten off rather lightly in her first two pregnancies, bouncing back with only a few small silvery marks at the cradle of her hips to show for two babies and he knew she was a little proud of that. He doubted she would be so lucky this time. 

This was unfamiliar territory. Katara had never made it this far into a pregnancy before, giving birth to Kai at thirty-seven weeks and Izumi even earlier at thirty-five. They hadn’t felt particularly small to Katara at the time, but there was a quite a comparison to be made between Kai’s canary melon or Izumi’s pineapple, to their watermelon-sized sister she was carrying now. 

Evidently, Katara was feeling the difference rather acutely.

“Hey, Zuko.” Atleast Suki smiled at him as he stepped into the igloo, getting up from her knees where he assumed she’d been tending to Katara’s sore, puffy ankles. “How was the trip? Any peace and quiet?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he chuckled. Peace and quiet was not a thing that happened in his life anymore - rarely since Kai and never since Izumi. “-but they were as good as I could ask of them.”

Suki nodded, but her eyes flitted between him and her sister-in-law, once, twice, before she quietly excused herself with giving them time alone.

“I’m not happy with you.” is all Katara had to say to him.

It was a major risk to his own safety but he’d missed her so much he couldn’t quite keep the lopsided smile from lifting his lips. “I can tell.”

Fortunately, the children appeared behind him in the doorway before she decided whether to wring him by the neck or not. “Mommy!” they called out in unison as they charged across the room to her. 

Her mood changed in a snap, her whole form relaxing as though she’d had an incredible weight lifted from her shoulders. “Oh, my babies. Come and give Mom a hug.” The look on Katara’s face he could only define as relieved as they scrambled onto the bed and she folded her son and daughter into her arms, squeezing them as tight to her as she possibly could. “It’s so good to see you. I missed you both so, so much.”

“We missed you, too, Mom.” Kai’s voice was muffled as he buried his face into the crook of Katara’s neck.

Izumi savoured the moment of reunion somewhat less. 

“Whoa, Mom, your tummy is _huge_!” she exclaimed, kneeling down on the furs so her eyes were level with the bump. “Can I touch it?”

The look Katara shot up at Zuko as he hovered by the door was thunderous, but her tone when she spoke and the hand ruffling through their daughter’s wavy locks was soft. “Sure, Zumi. She’s kicking, but you probably won’t be able to feel so much through my parka.”

A frown creased the princess’s brow as she laid her hand on the dome of her mother's abdomen and Zuko cringed in anticipation of the question he knew was coming next. “Why are you wearing Daddy’s parka?”

Another pointed glare was fired over Izumi’s head as Katara explained to their daughter: “Because I don’t fit into my ones anymore. My belly is too big.”

Zuko decided to intervene before Katara was peppered with further tactless questions.

“Hey, Izumi? Kai? Why don’t you take your stuff into your room and start unpacking? Once you’re done doing that, you could come back and show Mom the new books that your Auntie Kiyi sent for you.” he added as a small bribe, knowing full well they wouldn’t want to leave her side without some sort of incentive.

Katara erupted the second the children were out of earshot.

“Look at what you’ve done to me, you monster. _Look_.” 

Zuko resisted the urge to rush over and help her up as she got to her feet, even when she required a hand bracing the weight of her stomach to stand, knowing that would only pour fuel on the fire. Katara was by far the most stubbornly independent person he’d ever met and pregnancy - no matter how tough it got on her body - did not change that about her.

“Made you into a beautiful, incredible woman far too good for me?” he suggested meekly.

Inevitably, Katara was thoroughly unimpressed. “Well, that was _awful_.”

“Yes, I know. It’s been a long journey and an even longer three weeks, give me a break.” he sighed heavily before he hurriedly added: “Not as bad as yours though, I imagine, not _nearly_ as bad since I’m not growing a human inside me and all-”

Katara opened her arms. “Just shut up and come here.”

He went to them gladly and lived the moment he’d been waiting for since the second she’d let go of his hand and stepped up onto the gangplank three weeks ago.

“I missed you.” he murmured into her hair as he held her against his chest.

“I missed you, too.” she echoed, tilting her head back to look at him. “How were the kids? It doesn’t look like you’ve been pulling your hair out too much.”

“Izumi tried it on with me a bit for the first few days but I put my foot down. You’d have been proud of me.” he bragged a little as she quirked a surprised eyebrow at her husband - the same man who was usually a complete and utter pushover when it came to their children. “They were mostly fine after that and they spent quite a bit of time with Uncle, too; you know they're never naughty when they're with him.” Zuko slid his palms back from her hips to cup the swell of her belly jutted between them. “And how’s this little one been behaving? By the way, thanks for waiting for me, kid.”

“She wouldn’t have if it were up to me.” Katara glared down exasperatedly. “She really is dragging her feet. I had my show a week after I got here - scared the hell out of me, I thought you were going to miss the birth by a country mile - but nothing’s happened since then. No lightening, no dilation, no contractions - not even the practice ones. No _nothing_. Stubborn like her father.” Her frustrated tone was at odds with the affectionate way her fingers grazed over her bump, the same way he knew she’d admire every inch of the baby’s delicate skin when she arrived. “I’m telling you now, if you ever _\- ever -_ knock me up again, I’m having that embryo surgically removed from my womb and shoved inside you instead.”

He considered arguing the science of her threat, or asking her if that ultimatum still applied if she was the one who approached him for another baby, but wisely decided against both options. She was volatile, and he did want to live to see his grandkids one day.

“I would do it for you if I could.” 

Katara saw right through him, as always. “No, you wouldn’t.” she huffed, crossing her arms atop her swollen stomach. “You’d never be able to cope.”

Zuko smiled as she leaned away from him. He could never forget Katara’s face, but he admired and memorised every inch of it again just in case - even if she was scowling as if her worst enemy were standing over his shoulder.

“I love you.” he offered hopefully.

“I love you, too.” she conceded after a moment of calculation as he enveloped her into another hug. “Asshole.”

“ _Wow_ ,” He let out a low whistle at the addition. Katara virtually never cursed. “You gonna kiss your husband with that mouth?”

She smirked up at him. “If he asks nicely, maybe.”

“Please?”

She was quick to oblige him, pushing up onto her tip toes and planting a kiss on his lips, the touch particularly warm in the cold air surrounding them.

“You still have a week to go and you’ve delivered early twice before.” he said as she returned to the flats of her feet and buried her face into the warmth of his chest. Even beneath the thick layers of fur lining his coat, he can feel their unborn stretching and rolling inside her like a cat stirring from a nap in the sun. “I’m sure it won’t be long now.”

Katara hummed sceptically. “Better not be.”

For his own health and sanity, he prayed to Agni, Tui and La that was true. 

* * *

Unfortunately, his prayers weren’t answered. The opposite, in fact.

Each day passed slow and without event. Katara’s frustrations began to escalate in tandem with her discomfort. On the thirteenth day since his arrival in the Southern Water Tribe - though it had felt like much, much longer - Zuko could see the bad news like an oncoming storm on the physician’s face.

“I’m sorry, Katara, but there’s no sign of any dilation just yet. I think perhaps we should stop checking so often. You’ll know when you’re in labour and it’s just making the time go maddeningly slower for you.” the Fire Nation physician apologised with a truly sympathetic look that spilled over to Zuko too, peeling the gloves from her hands. “On the plus side, you’ve most definitely had your lightening by the feel and shape of your abdomen and you’re virtually a hundred percent effaced. They’re both very good indicators that your labour will start-”

“Soon?” Katara interrupted, her eyes wide. “Don’t you dare say _soon_.”

“I’m sorry,” Maho said again. “-but soon is about the best I can give. I’m a physician, not a mystic.”

“How soon is soon? It’s been _soon_ forever. I want this baby out of me _now_!” she practically yelled. 

“Katara, my dear,” Kanna was completely unaffected by her granddaughter’s fury, chuckling quietly as she helped her sit back up against the pillows. “You helped me in plenty of deliveries when you were growing up, and now you’ve already had two of your own. You know very well that babies come on their own schedules and every child is different. It’s not your time yet. The little one will come and join us when she’s good and ready.”

“I don’t care, I want her out.” Katara retorted petulantly. She attempted to fold her arms, but when she found there was no gap between her stomach and her breasts left to fit them in, it only soured her mood further.

Zuko waded into the fray as he sat at her bedside, her mittened hand clutched in his. “I know you’re struggling, but it won’t be long-” 

“You have been saying that everyday since you got here - two _weeks_ ago. Now I’m nearly forty-one weeks pregnant and the size of a goddamn whale!” she exclaimed, glaring up at him as Gran Gran tucked the furs over her to stave off the bite of the winter air. “I can’t sleep. I can’t walk more than a few paces. I can barely stand up by myself. My ankles are about the size of a rhino’s. My skin is all stretched and itchy and to top it all off, I can’t go _five_ minutes without needing a pee. You have absolutely no _idea_ what this feels like.” 

He winced. No, he didn’t feel it physically, but the fury lashing down on him and an imagination gave him a pretty good sense of things. “I’m sorry, Katara. What can I do for you?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” she snapped bitterly. “Actually, can you stay away today? I need some space here, otherwise I’m gonna end up hitting you over the head with something heavy.”

Katara had been at the end of her tether with him all week. He should have seen it coming but he was still taken aback by her dismissal. “But who’s going to-”

“I’ll stay with her.” Suki offered quickly, taking his place at her side as he rose.

“Alright. If that’s what you want.” He didn’t want to go but if his absence was going to make things even the slightest bit better for her, it was his duty to disappear. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll see you at dinner then.”

She didn’t acknowledge him, her eyes burning a hole into the pillow beside her as she looked away.

“Zuko.” The physician touched his elbow lightly as she followed him out of the igloo. “Zuko, don’t take it to heart. She doesn’t really mean it. She’s just-”

“I know.”

He _did_ know, but still he couldn’t deny that her rejection stung. The low mood clung to him as he went about the day trying to occupy himself, stubborn enough that even being around the children didn’t lighten him much. By the time that Sokka suggested going on a short hunt - just the two of them - as they ate lunch, he jumped at the chance to lose himself to a pursuit.

They made it less than three miles out of the city before Aang came chasing them down.

Even with Appa to carry him the distance, by the time he returned to her, things seemed well and truly under way. He found her already on the floor, lying on her side on the pile of speckled caribou furs she’d prepared with her grandmother and sister-in-law sat quietly next to her.

She immediately grabbed for his hand as he sped to her side.

“Sorry-” Her face scrunched up in pain as a contraction racked her body, her grip on him tightening like a vice. “Sorry I was such a jerk to you.”

“No, no. Don’t be sorry.” he comforted her, smoothing the loose strands from her braid out of her face as the spasm eased off. “I think you’ve earned that one. Probably a whole lot more, too.”

“That’s good, because I think I’m probably gonna need to yell at you a few more times before this kid comes out,” she smiled weakly. “If you don’t mind.”

He settled down in the furs beside her. 

“Give it your best shot, waterbender.”

* * *

Katara huffed at the sharp little cry that split the air. 

“Yes, yes, alright. I hear you. I’m on it. Just... just give me a moment.” Katara answered her wailing daughter with a stifled yawn, as she struggled to latch the newborn to her breast. After a few further seconds of difficulty, the baby girl figured it out. “You’re as demanding as your big sister, you know that, little one?”

Zuko peered over at his daughter’s face, partially obscured by the white reindeer furs she was swaddled in as she suckled.

“She looks... she looks like both of us.”

“Well, I would hope so, since we are her mother and father.” Katara responded drily but Zuko only beamed. He’d been a father for over five years, but he still wasn’t tired of hearing it said aloud, nor was he used to getting to tell people that he had a son and a daughter - a son and _two_ daughters now. He doubted he ever would be, even when he had grown old and his kids had kids themselves.

He pressed a kiss to her temple. “You know what I mean.”

While their two older children did exhibit both of their parents - Kai’s eyes, though gold rather than blue, were moulded like his mother’s and he had the same complexion whereas Izumi had taken Zuko’s irises - they both clearly favoured one over the other. Their new baby girl, however, was a more even blend. The full head of hair she’d been born with was jet black like her father’s, but even thicker and already rippled with the beginnings of curls. Her eyes were identical in colour to Katara’s, but almond-shaped and Zuko thought he could see the beginnings of the sharp Fire Nation bone structure lurking beneath the layers of baby fat insulating her body. Even her complexion hovered somewhere in between them both, still clearly of a mixed heritage but a few touches closer to his alabaster tone than Katara, Kai and Izumi’s bronze one. Every time Zuko would get close to deciding she was more like one than the other, he’d notice something else that would tip the scales back to equilibrium.

“She’s so beautiful.” he said, for what was probably the thousandth time already.

Of course, Zuko had thought that Kai and Izumi were the most beautiful babies the world had ever seen when they were born, too. He was obliged to - a piece of him with a piece of Katara could never be anything less than perfect in his mind - but this little one did objectively have a certain look about her. Uncle Iroh would probably say that she was _striking_ , when they went back to the palace and he was introduced to his newest grandchild.

“Well, she might look like both of us,” Katara winced as she shifted her weight to a more comfortable position, nestling closer to the heat of Zuko’s body under the covers beside her. ”-but I think she’s going to take after you.”

“Why’s that?”

“That look on her face? That’s all you.”

Zuko had fallen in love with all three of his children long before they were born. It built slowly, like water dripping into a cup, near parallel to the rate Katara’s belly grew and the strength and regularity of the kicks, punches and rolls increased. Then, at the precise second that he first laid eyes on them, bloody and screeching, the cup overflowed and the feelings of adoration overtook him so fast that he likened it to drowning in a tidal wave.

Despite all of that, he tended to agree with Toph’s statement, one that she claimed was extra valid now that she had her own son - newborn babies were little more than squishy miniature potato-humans. Not that he would ever admit to that out loud. Katara would probably not be amused at such an unflattering comment towards something she’d spent nearly ten months incubating then suffered through hours of excruciating pain to deliver into the world. Worse still, he’d have to admit that Toph was right and Toph was _insufferable_ when she was right. But even with a kinder appraisal than the earthbender’s, newborns were pretty inscrutable. Fortunately, Kai and Izumi had always managed to conjure up enough emotion to reassure him that they were happy in his company. 

This baby, though, seemed yet to fully decide whether she even _liked_ them or not, spending all of her first hours on Earth peering up at he and Katara warily, like they were a pair of strange animals she couldn’t quite make sense of. 

That said, she’d screamed at the top of her little lungs when Kanna had taken her away from them for a more thorough health check - loud enough that Sokka, but thankfully not their two elder children, had been alerted to the new arrival from Hakoda’s home next door - so atleast she seemed to think of them as the devils she knew.

“I disagree. That’s exactly how you looked at me when you first saw me at the Western Air Temple. Not that it wasn’t deserved.” Zuko snorted. “She’d be a good Fire Lord with that attitude. Pity she’s thirdborn.”

“And a waterbender.” Katara said, practically aglow with pride.

Katara had been relieved when Kai turned out to be a firebender, similarly pleased when Izumi had revealed herself to be one, too, but deep down Zuko knew how badly she wanted a waterbender in their brood. They had always made an effort to make sure their two elder children were just as in touch with their Water Tribe roots as they were their Fire Nation, but it wasn’t quite the same as Katara being able to pass on the bending culture. But Zuko had had a feeling all through the pregnancy that this baby was going to be the waterbender that Katara had hoped for and now that he’d actually seen her, felt the stare of those icy blue eyes on him, he was absolutely certain of it. 

“What do you think of the name Bashira?” Katara asked suddenly.

“I thought we were going to call her Kallik.”

She just shrugged, but Zuko wasn’t all that surprised at her sudden change of heart. He’d had a feeling all along that their picking of a name and sticking to it so early on was too good to be true.

“Bashira. Kai, Izumi and Bashira.” Zuko tried it out on his tongue. “That doesn’t sound very Southern Water Tribe.”

“That’s because it’s not. It’s from the Northern Water Tribe. Pakku suggested it to me just before I went into labour, since she does have a little Northern heritage in her. I know it doesn’t fit the whole K or Z tradition in our families but I really love the way it sounds and it has a nice meaning, too. It means bringer of good tidings.”

He thought about it a bit more for a moment, rehearsing the name in his head over and over, before he nodded firmly. “I like it, too. Kallik is nice but Bashira suits her better. It sounds kind of... _fierce_.”

She smiled tiredly. “Perfect.”

Katara leaned into him heavily, resting her head on the plane of his shoulder with a deeper yawn. Zuko snaked his free arm around her and pulled her and their baby daughter in nearer still, pressing his cheek against her crown, still slightly sweat-damp from the birth. For a moment, the room was entirely still, no noise anywhere apart from the faint sounds of Bashira’s nursing. That sort of silence could never be achieved back at the palace, with so many people milling around in their orbit and an entire capital city sitting just beyond the walls. When Katara had first told him that she wanted to go to her tribe to give birth this time, his heart had sunk at the logistical nightmare it presented. In spite of the hassle though, Zuko was glad now that Katara had insisted on coming to her own birthplace to deliver their third child. Atleast here she could have the solitude she deserved to recover and bond with her new baby. It would not be long before they would have to return to court, though, and to their titular duties. He wanted her to make the most of it.

“Get some rest, Katara.” Zuko murmured, his own eyelids beginning to grow conspicuously heavy. "You must be exhausted... _beyond_ that.”

“I am, but I’m not going to sleep until I’ve seen my other babies.” she answered with another yawn, quiet but resolute. “It’s already been too long apart.”

Zuko poised himself to argue with her, but realised how futile it was before a single word actually left his mouth. Katara was not going to concede on this and he doubted that Kai and Izumi would wait until tomorrow to meet their baby sister anyway. It _had_ been too long, over twenty-four hours since Zuko had left them in the care of their uncle and grandfather. That had to be the longest their family had ever been separated.

Zuko sighed in defeat and reluctantly extricated himself from the bed. 

* * *

“Mom!” 

“Be careful, Kai.” Zuko called out as their son sped across the room to Katara’s bedside. “Your mom is feeling quite sore, okay? We have to be gentle with her.”

Kai nodded solemnly and slowed down as he pulled himself up onto the bed.

Along with all the joy and relief of the baby finally arriving, Zuko had never seen Katara so beaten down - physically and emotionally. 

She must have expected this labour to pass quickly. After all, that was her only personal experience of it. Kai and Izumi had both come with a vengeance - their births so intense that Zuko had never known panic like it - but they had come fast and that suited her. This labour, however, had been the complete opposite of that. Katara had had no idea how far away the finish still was when she’d settled down on her furs. Ultimately, she’d had to endure through till the late afternoon of the following day before it had finally ended.

Counting the impossibly long minutes between contractions, enduring the equally long stretches of pain when they arrived, hour after hour crawling by with such minimal progress - that had brought Katara to the edge of her fortitude. 

They’d allowed her as much time as they could - some labours were inherently longer and this baby was bigger than Kai and Izumi had been so maybe it would take a little more to push her out, they’d reasoned - but when Katara had started to tire and Shira had begun getting into distress, Kanna and the physician had had no choice but to intervene. It was then, as Katara’s closely-held vision of a natural birth fell apart, so did she. Tears were rare. What was rarer was hearing her cry that she couldn’t do it. Katara was made of far sterner stuff than him. Seeing her brought so low had instilled a fear in him more visceral than anything he’d ever felt before.

The traditions of the Southern Water Tribe had afforded him more of a role than he’d been given during the deliveries of their first two children - laying beside her in the nest of furs and blankets spread out on the floor, helping Gran Gran massage Shira into a better position, even pushing beneath the swell of her belly to allow the baby emerge when she’d become trapped by her shoulder - but still he’d felt the guilt of uselessness right until the very end, when their baby girl had finally slipped out into her great-grandmother’s hands.

All of that pain, all of that trauma and disappointment, completely disappeared behind her smile when she saw her son.

“Hi, sweetie.” Katara greeted as he sat cross-legged by her side. “Sorry it’s been so long. I missed you both so much. Did you have fun with Grandpa ‘Koda and Uncle Sokka?”

“Yeah! Grandpa and Bato took us sailing with them. We caught some fish and then we cooked them for supper. Oh, and Uncle Sokka taught us boomerangs. It was _so_ cool.” Izumi answered enthusiastically before her brother could get a word in edge-ways, swinging her legs as she sat on her father’s hip. “Can we have boomerangs at home?”

A prophetic vision flashed before Zuko’s eyes. Windows, mirrors, ornaments, plates, glasses, precious historical artefacts and the ensemble of numerous other breakable things in the palace, all shattered on the floor. Servants and nobles alike, ducking, running and screaming from the little Princess Izumi, charging down the hallways with a boomerang in one hand, her bright blue fire blazing in the other. He would never know a moment’s peace again. He was going to have words with Uncle Sokka when he saw him next, not that Sokka - ever devoted to his role as the ‘fun uncle’ - would pay him much mind.

“Maybe when you’re older, Zum.” Zuko said evasively, plopping the four-year-old onto Katara’s pallet in the hope that she would be distracted by the new baby before she thought to argue. Izumi was at that wonderful stage of youth where _‘why’_ was her favourite word, whereas _‘Izumi, no’_ and _‘Izumi, don’t touch that’_ and _‘Izumi, put that down’_ had to be his and Katara’s most commonly spoken phrases.

Zuko didn’t get to find out if his slap-dash distraction technique would work because Katara, as always, was smarter about it.

“There’s not much open space in our quarters at home where you could throw it properly and the gardens are too pretty. We wouldn’t want to ruin the nice flowers or scare the turtleducks away, now, would we?” she said. As soon as Kai had become old enough to reason with, Katara had been quick to figure out that her diplomatic skills were usually even more effective on children than they were on the professional ambassadors she entertained as Fire Lady. “Perhaps you could ask Uncle Sokka to make a special one just for you and you could keep it here for when you visit.”

Izumi considered her mother’s proposition before she decided that would be a fair compromise, her braids bobbing along as she nodded.

“Good girl. Now,” Katara held out her hand. “Would you like to come and meet your baby sister?”

The Fire Princess blinked in surprise. In the excitement over the boomerang lessons from her favourite uncle - Aang was going to have to work _really_ hard to reclaim that title from Sokka now - she had clearly forgotten all about the reason they were in the South Pole in the first place.

When he and Katara had started trying for a third child, he hadn’t worried at all at the prospect of telling their eldest. They had majorly lucked out with Kai. Their sweet, placid baby had grown into quite possibly the best big brother ever - attentive, responsible and endlessly patient even at his young age. He adored the sister he already had and this new baby would be no different for him but Izumi - the equivalent of a fireball trapped into a human form - had presented a whole different challenge.

Izumi was the baby of the family and she had been thoroughly indulged in that position her whole life. She’d been born a handful, but she had also always had a particular playful charm that even her beloved Auntie Azula wasn’t quite able to resist. It had seemed inevitable that Izumi wouldn’t take kindly to being ousted from her prime spot and Zuko had fully expected all hell to break loose when she found out. That feeling had been compounded ten-fold when Katara determined they were having another girl, but ultimately the long nights they had spent planning how to negotiate the princess around her jealousy were for nought. Izumi had been delightedwhen they’d broken the news. Initially, Zuko had worried that she’d had a knee-jerk reaction - that she’d simply looked to her brother for guidance, like she did a lot of the time, and imitated him - and that her enthusiasm would fade as soon as she got the chance to think it all through. Izumi had proved him wrong and she’d been just as thrilled in the later months as she’d been in the earlier ones, telling anyone that would listen about the baby sister growing in her mom’s tummy.

Agni, could they be a challenge, but Zuko often wondered what he had done to be blessed with kids as amazing as his.

Izumi took her mother’s hand and scrambled up the bed, perching on her heels opposite her older brother. Both she and Kai were almost vibrating with anticipation as Katara lifted the newborn out from her parka and repositioned her so her siblings could see properly, laying her down flat with her head cradled between her knees.

“That’s our baby?” Izumi whispered, leaning closer to the newborn.

“Sure is.” Zuko was smiling so much he thought it might split his face in two. “Your little sister.”

The princess looked up at him, eyes near-glowing with excitement. “Thank you, Daddy!”

“You’re welcome.” he said as Katara chuckled. “I think maybe you should say thank you to Mommy though, not me. She did all the hard work, growing her in her tummy for nine months.”

“Thank you, Mommy.”

“You’re welcome.” Katara echoed softly, reaching out to tuck a loose curl behind her elder daughter’s ear.

Zuko had spent the first few years of his marriage tarrying when it came to starting a family. Fears over both the vastly malleable nature of a child’s character and his ability to do the influencing - or atleast his ability to influence his offspring in the right way - had consumed his every thought, but somehow he and Katara had still beaten all of their family and friends to it. Partly because of the necessity of Zuko having an heir, partly because Katara had dreamed of being a mother since she was a child herself, but mostly because Kai had just _happened_ to them - not an accident, per se, but not exactly planned either. 

Izumi had come along as another surprise barely a fortnight after her brother’s first birthday, so Kai would not remember when Izumi was this small. Neither would he remember when their cousin, Tulok, was born a few months after Izumi. Kai probably did remember seeing Aang and Toph's son, but Bumi had already been a few weeks old at their first meeting. A baby this young was a new experience for Kai and Izumi both.

Kai tilted his head curiously and Izumi’s mouth hung open in awe as the baby alternated her stare between them, a frown creasing her tiny brow.

For a moment, the room seemed frozen - the two elder siblings peering down at their baby sister and Zuko and Katara gazing at all three - until Kai reached out and touched the newborn’s tightly curled fist. Zuko tensed, waiting for Shira to wail at the audacity of a Not-Mom-or-Dad getting so near to her, but instead she surprised him by grabbing hold of Kai’s finger and hauling it closer. Izumi, drawing confidence from her brother’s success, stroked through the thick down that covered the baby’s head. After a second of hesitation, Shira deemed Izumi worthy of contact, too.

“Do you like her?” Katara asked. The pair couldn’t manage to tear themselves away from her for even a minute, nodding vehemently to substitute for a verbal response. She glanced to address Zuko with a tired smile. “I guess that means we can take her home with us then.”

Eventually, Kai looked up at his mother. “Can I hold her?” 

“I want to hold her, too.” Izumi said eagerly.

“How about Kai holds her and you sit next to him for now? She’s quite heavy.” Zuko offered instead, taking the baby from Katara’s lap.

Luckily, Izumi was satisfied with that arrangement, too enamoured by her new sister to put up a fight like she normally would, and settled in next to Kai without a word of complaint. Zuko carefully lowered the baby into the empty basket-shape of Kai’s arms, instilled into him by his mother. Bashira seemed mildly bewildered about the whole thing but she didn’t cry out, immediately reattaching herself to her brother’s finger. Zuko privately hoped that she would stay this tolerant when they went back to the palace and she’d have an array of new faces wanting to greet her.

Kai had another question for them: “What’s she called?”

Zuko blinked in surprise, wondering how they’d gotten this far through the introductions without telling them her name. 

“Your dad and I have decided to call her Bashira.” Katara told them warmly as Zuko came to perch on the edge of the bed next to his family.

Izumi didn’t seem put out at the realisation that her numerous and... _unique_ baby name suggestions like Sparkles, Bubble, Mango and his personal favourite - Izumi the Second - hadn’t been selected as she leaned over and cooed to the baby: “Hi, Shira. I’m your big sister, Izumi. We’re gonna be the bestest friends ever.”

As he watched his two girls together, Zuko was suddenly struck by the thought that they were going to make an interesting duo when they got older. 

“Daddy, when we go home, can Bashira sleep in our bedroom with us?” Izumi’s voice was so genuine, her amber eyes shining so bright with hope, that he felt like his heart might just explode with the adorableness of it all.

“Not yet, kiddo. She’s too little. Babies cry a lot when they’re this young so they have to stay with their mom and dad for a while.”

“I don’t mind if she wakes me up.”

He chuckled at his daughter’s adamance, though it wasn’t entirely unfounded - he was more aware than anyone that Izumi did already wake up in the night frequently. “I know you don’t, my little night owl, but Shira will cry because she’s hungry, so she needs to stay close to Mommy during the night so she can get her milk. Maybe in a year or so, when she’s a bit bigger and she doesn’t get hungry so often, she can come in with you guys.”

Izumi sat back, considering that for a moment before she turned to Katara and said bluntly: “Mommy, are you and Daddy going to make more babies?”

Zuko thought he had immunised himself to child-related embarrassment. He’d learnt a long time ago, in his first few months with Kai, that it was necessary. Having to hear the pathetic but persistent comments that Zuko’s level of involvement in the raising of his son was inappropriate for a Fire Lord had shown him that, and having a daughter with little appreciation for social conventions had affirmed it. But when he coupled Izumi’s innocently-intended question with the vivid memories of what Katara had literally just been through, he couldn’t stop a mortified flush from prickling up his neck and setting his cheeks ablaze.

Fortunately, Katara had seen and heard it all and was completely unfazed.

“I don’t know, turtleduck. Carrying a baby around in your tummy for nine months isn’t easy, you know.” Izumi squealed as Katara tickled her stomach. “Would you like it if we did?”

“Yeah! I want _lots_ of sisters,” Their first daughter bounced up and down on the pillows excitedly as much as she could without jostling the baby. “-but we’ll have to make our bedroom bigger otherwise we won’t all fit.”

“Or you could just have separate rooms?” Zuko suggested. 

Izumi shot him a withering look in the way that only little girls can. 

“That wouldn’t be as much fun as if we all shared, Daddy.” she said snootily. “Maybe Kai could move out and then we could have a girls-only room.”

Kai looked mildly offended at that suggestion, since technically it was _his_ bedroom - Izumi had just commandeered it as _theirs_ pretty much as soon as she’d graduated from sleeping in with her parents _-_ but he shrugged his shoulders and said nonchalantly: “That’s fine. Maybe Mom and Dad will have another boy and I’ll get to share with my _brother_ instead.” 

Zuko often thought of Izumi as the brains of the outfit but Kai was sharp, too, and he knew _exactly_ how his sister’s mind worked. Sure enough, Izumi looked hurt at the implication of being replaced herself and not the other way around.

Katara jumped in to quash the argument ahead of it starting.

“When mommies and daddies decide to have a baby, they don’t get to choose whether the baby is a boy or a girl. It’s a surprise, like... uh-” 

“Like when your Grandpa Iroh brings you back those special eggs from Ba Sing Se.” Zuko supplied as Katara fumbled for an fitting example. “When you crack open the shell, you don’t get to pick the toy animal that’s in there, but they’re all equally as good as each other, right? It’s the same with a baby. It doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or girl because we’re a family and we’ll love them no matter what.”

Kai nodded along but the effort was mostly wasted on him, since Kai would probably be happy enough living the rest of his life with a gaggle of little sisters at his heels regardless. When he turned to Izumi, she had that familiar look on her face that told Zuko she hadn’t listened to a word he’d just said. Usually, that was because he was telling her off for a misdemeanour and she didn’t _want_ to hear it, but this time she seemed preoccupied with an earlier thought. Probably still chewing over the prospect that her position as Kai’s prime companion could be usurped by a baby brother one day. 

Maybe they would need those plans on dealing with Izumi’s jealousy after all.

_If we ever even have any more_ , Zuko reminded himself sternly.

When they had talked about kids before their engagement, when they had barely been more than kids themselves, Katara had left her limit vague, her only specification being _‘atleast two’._ Once Zuko’s paralysing fears about being a bad father had finally settled, he’d resolved to give her as many as she wanted from him but after the struggle she’d had today, her wanting to go through that again - especially now that they already had three healthy children to raise - seemed questionable.

Before he could dwell on it anymore, he was pulled from his musings by Bashira. She was starting to grumble, squirming in her brother’s arms restlessly.

“Here, give her to me, Kai.” Katara stepped in. “She’s probably ready for another sleep.”

“You two should be going to bed now anyway.” Zuko said as Katara took their youngest back.

“But, _Dad_.” They whined in perfect harmony.

“Come on, let’s give Mommy some peace and quiet. Having a baby is not easy, you know. She’s really tired out and it’s nearly your bedtime anyway. I’m sure you didn’t get much sleep last night at Uncle Sokka’s either.” he said firmly.

Zuko already knew for a fact that they hadn’t. He’d seen Sokka’s bloodshot eyes and the purplish half-moons beneath them. Handling Kai and Izumi alongside his own troublemaker of a son was always going to be a challenge, but clearly Zuko’s warning - _“Make sure Izumi is in bed and asleep by eight or she won’t sleep at all”_ \- had gone unheeded.

“Say goodnight to your mother and sister, then come and put your pyjamas on.” 

Realising that there was no negotiating a delay from their father, they both murmured goodnight to Katara and Bashira, got their required kisses, and followed Zuko off into their adjoining room. For all his contempt about Sokka not getting his niece asleep at the right time, Zuko wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to do it himself. Izumi seemed the furthest thing from sleepy she could possibly be. She was bursting with energy, to the point that Zuko had to practically pin her down to unravel Sokka’s enthusiastic but dire attempts at braids and brush her hair out. She was talking so much and so fast that he was amazed she hadn’t run out of things to say yet. Even Kai was getting tired of her, his responses to her chatter descending into one acknowledging grunt as he climbed into the sleeping bag he shared with her to keep warm.

Zuko was bracing himself for a long night of waiting for Izumi to simply burn herself out, but when he turned around with an extra blanket and their chosen storybook in hand, Izumi had already passed out of her own accord, head on her brother’s shoulder and snoring loudly.

“Do you still want me to read?” he whispered to Kai as he crouched at his side.

The boy shook his head.

“Okay.” Zuko smiled. 

He laid the heavy fur blanket over them and tucked in the edges to trap the heat, slowly and carefully so as not to disturb Izumi. He pressed his fingers to his lips and touched them lightly to his daughter’s fringe, then leaned in and kissed Kai’s forehead.

“I love you.” He made a habit of telling his children he loved them atleast once a day, every day, but it somehow felt especially loaded tonight.

“I love you, too, Dad.” Kai yawned and shut his eyes. Within a few minutes, he was out. Usually, Zuko envied his children’s ability to just flip the off switch and sleep, but he was so exhausted tonight that he’d probably be able to do that himself.

Zuko stood watch over them for a little while longer than necessary, savouring the luxury of having the time to do that. The evenings were meant to pass undisturbed for the Fire Lord but there was usually always something that needed his attention - minutes from a council meeting, a bill proposal, a stack of unopened letters - that drew him away from his children the second they dropped off. There was definitely some truth in the saying that children were far cuter when they were sleeping, but eventually he forced himself to leave them. He crept back into his room expecting to find Katara and the baby asleep, too. He was half right. Katara was still awake, hovering in between the middle and his side of the bed, but Shira was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey.” she yawned. “Are they both down?”

“They are, though at one point, I was considering asking Gran Gran for some of that soothing syrup to knock Izumi out with. Or myself, if it didn’t work on her.”

She gasped in mock horror. “What, not even a mercy dosing for your son?”

“It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Katara. Kid’s going to be Fire Lord one day; he’s got to learn that at some point.” Zuko grinned. “He can consider it compensation for all the nights he’s kept me awake in the last five years.”

Katara laughed as much as her aching body would allow. “She was that bad, huh?”

“Just overexcited about the baby. Speaking of the baby, where is she?”

She tossed back the covers on the furthest side to him. Beside her, in the crook of her elbow, Katara had built a throne of furs and blankets. Atop it lay their sleeping daughter, swaddled in a silk wrap brought from the palace and tucked into a tiny sleeping bag, with her stuffed otter penguin from Uncle Sokka squished in beside her.

“Given up on the whole ‘baby sleeps in the cot, not in our bed’ thing before we’ve even started, huh?”

“I think Izumi well and truly broke me with that rule.” Katara smiled, thinking back to how their elder daughter would scream out like they were torturing her almost every time they tried to lower her into the crib. “Besides, it’ll be pointless trying it now. Better to wait until we get home, then we can try and set up a proper routine with her.”

Zuko nodded before he asked: “Is she going to be warm enough?” 

She waved her hand dismissively as she laid the covers back down over the baby. “She’ll be fine. She’s made of tougher stuff.” 

He quirked an eyebrow. “Tougher stuff than _who_ , exactly?”

Katara shrugged nonchalantly but there was a playful glint in her eye. “Don’t worry. I doubt she’ll get cold with us under the blankets to heat her up and even if she does, no doubt she’ll soon let us know about it. Come to bed.”

He was only too happy to oblige her. He tiptoed over and pressed a kiss to Bashira’s forehead as lightly as he possibly could - he didn’t get the impression that she was the sort of infant who would take kindly to being interrupted from her sleep - and snuck an extra polar bear pelt over her before he returned to his side of the bed. With a deep breath, Zuko stripped off his parka, along with his outer layers of clothing, and dived under the covers as quickly as he could before the harsh polar climate could bite at him. Katara made a disgruntled noise at the jostling and tugging of the blankets, but she didn’t stop him. If that was what it took to keep him from shivering and moaning about the cold all night, then it was a worthy sacrifice.

Zuko let out a sigh of relief as he burrowed into the warmth radiating from his wife, curling an arm around her waist to hold her close to him. There was silence for a while, but he could tell Katara was still awake by the regulated rhythm of her breathing.

“Katara, I-,” he started. “I’m sorry. About today.”

She rolled over in his arms, so close her breath tickled the skin of his cheeks and their noses were almost touching. “ _Sorry_? What are you sorry for? You were amazing. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“No, _you_ were amazing - I just sat there and held your hand - but... you had the complications with Kai, then you had a bad labour with Izumi, and now you’ve had a tough time with Shira, too...” he sighed. “All of your labours have been unpleasant. I know how much you wanted this one to be perfect, for you to be able to do it on your own. I’m just sorry that it wasn’t.”

“Oh, Zuko. Believe me, childbirth is _never_ pleasant-” she chuckled. “-and birth plans are more of a wish list than a guide for reality. Babies come whenever and however they like and that rarely matches up with what the mother wants. That’s life. It’s just nature and luck. You have to take what you get and make the best out of it.” Katara placed one hand on the back of his neck. “No, I haven’t had the births that I wanted, but what I have had is three healthy babies. That’s all that matters to me and it’s a lot more than some mothers get.”

“I guess.” he said as her other hand came up to hold the charm of his betrothal necklace, the metal warmed by his skin at odds with her cold palm. “It’d be nice for you to not have to suffer so much for it, though.”

Katara just shrugged, laying the gold disc back down against the hollow of his throat. “Maybe I’ll get luckier the next time round.”

“What?” she asked as he stared at her for a long moment.

“There is no way that getting pregnant again is even a thought in your brain right now.”

“That’s the true miracle of it. The pregnancy, the pain, it all fades into the background once you see your baby. It becomes a small price.” Zuko was dumbfounded as she rolled back over. “I mean, just look at her, Zuko. Isn’t she perfect?”

He shifted closer to her so the length of her spine was pressed to his chest and peered over her shoulder to where their new baby was snoozing soundly in her nest of blankets. Bashira was looking especially adorable, her tiny lips parted ever so slightly like the petals of a blooming flower as she snored. Kai and Izumi had been small even by baby standards, as a result of arriving a little before their proper times, but Bashira had been a week overdue; she could only be described as chubby and it was _awesome_. Zuko was obsessed by the rolls of her thighs and her plump dimpled cheeks and her pudgy little hands. Best of all, it meant that he wouldn’t have to wait a few months before he was brave enough to cuddle her properly. Shira looked more than capable of handling that nigh irresistible human desire to squish anything that looked even remotely cute.

“She is.” he agreed quietly.

Zuko could have happily spent the entire night laying there watching their daughter sleep, but within a few seconds, Katara’s head was bobbing up and down as she began struggling to hold it up. She didn’t complain when he reached over and blew out the last qulliq, the igloo plunging into darkness.

“You know, I think your philosophical explanations are improving.” she yawned as he pulled her to his chest. “That whole toy egg thing equals babies was actually quite effective.”

“Thank you.”

“You could have just told them to suck it up and take a bite out of the silver sandwich.” she added wryly.

The list of Sokka’s transgressions was stacking up very high; arming his children with boomerangs, hyping Izumi up with copious amounts of sugar and no sleep before promptly handing her back, telling Katara and Hakoda about his dumb sixteen-year old metaphors. And that was just the past twenty-four hours (or atleast, what he’d actually found out about). 

Zuko made a mental note to kill his brother-in-law in the morning. 

“Be quiet and get some sleep.”

Katara laughed but within ten minutes, she was fast asleep in his arms.

As always, it wasn’t long before Zuko followed her.

**Author's Note:**

> Just in case I never get round to covering all this in the series, here's all the chronological info and members of the Gaang's second generation:
> 
> Katara & Zuko (m. 105 AG) - Kaito "Kai" (109 AG), Izumi (110 AG), Bashira "Shira" (114 AG), Lili (117 AG), Kallik (118 AG) & Ilah (128 AG)
> 
> Sokka & Suki (m. 103 AG) - Tulok (110 AG) & Yuka (117 AG)
> 
> Aang & Toph (m. 111 AG) - Bumi (112 AG), Lin (114 AG), Tenzin (117 AG) & Suyin (124 AG)
> 
> I know what some of you will be thinking, Ilah hasn't been mentioned yet. Don't worry, I fully intend on writing a oneshot or two about her specifically later on, since her arrival into the family is kind of an extra Big Deal, given that it's so late in the timeline.


End file.
